My Favorite Railroad Bridge

As for a single bridge, I would have to as my favorite is the H**l Gate, in tinplate of course.  Lionel and MTH have very nice offerings, albeit rather pricey.

Here are two of my favourites. I don't have any recent pictures of them, so I hope that these from around 1900-1910 are OK. 

 

 

 

 

It sure is a beauty!

It's a beautiful bridge for sure.  I never tire of seeing great bridges.

 

Art

Guys,

 

My favorite railroad bridge doesn't exist anymore it was once built by a great man named Flagler it once extended to the Florida keys. It was destroyed by a hurricane in 1935.

 

Mike Maurice

Mine  is the Forth Bridge in Scotland:

A bit big to model in O  Gauge, though.

 

---PCJ

My Favorite Bridge is a Vertical Railroad Lift Bridge

 

This Vertical Railroad Lift Bridge, is called the International Bridge. In the foreground is the Railroad Lift Bridge and behind the Railroad Lift Bridge is the International Bridge for vehicles.

 

The bridges connects to cities with the same name, Sault Ste Marie, Ontario, Canada and Michigan, USA.  

 

Sault Ste Marie, Ontario is the largest of the two cities.

 

You can watch this Lift Bridge from several parks, along the Soo Locks. 

 

Click photo to enlarge

 

Here are a couple of my favorites:

 

UP Concrete Arch bridge over the Santa Ana River in Riverside, California. It's over 100 years old, built from reinforced concrete. The bridge is about 900 feet long (19'8" in O scale):

 

Pacific Electric Bridge across Torrance Boulevard in Torrance, California. This particular bridge is part of the City Logo. The tracks running underneath were original PE tracks. The tracks above ran to a steel mill (now gone). Almost no rail traffic runs through it now. It just underwent a restoration process, which put the engineering drawings out for public bidding and allowed me to get hold of them. This one would make a more reasonably-sized model in O scale as it's about 360 feet.

 

Here's HellGate:

 

 

Peter

And, another.....

 

 

 

Peter

My favorite railroad bridge is (was) the Kinzua Bridge in McKean County, Pennsylvania as shown in the first photo.  The main part of the bridge was destroyed by a tornado in 2003.  Today it exists as The Kinzua Sky Walk which was opened on September 15, 2011 as shown in the second photo.  I copied the vital statistics from Wikipedia.

 

1. Construction started: 1881
2. Closed: July 21, 2003
3. Total length: 2,051' (625 m)
4. Opened: 1882
5. Height: 302' (92 m)
6. Bridge type: Viaduct

    

    

Thanks for the beautiful color photo of the Firth of Forth bridge.  I have always been impressed.  Selective compression would be a necessity in O gauge for all these bridges.

My favorite without a doubt - prototype or model:

 

 

Jim

I'm a fan of lift bridges, trestles, and suspension bridges, but I love viaducts.

 

Definite favorite is the Starrucca Viaduct, outside of Lanesboro, Pennsylvania, the largest stone arched viaduct in the world.

 

Had good view of the prototype from an upper floor of Hospital for Special Surgery. Hopefully for the last time. 

**** Gate Bridge

New York City, New York

 

A quick look from Google Maps ©

 

All the basic facts.

Click to enlarge photo & map

One of my favorites is the Minneapolis stone arch bridge.

 

Art

 

maint,

 

I was born in Astoria - I could see the bridge approach from my bedroom window.

 

We moved to the Bronx before I was two. But, the only memory I have of that apartment is a string of tuscan red boxcars on the approach to the bridge.

 

In fact, that is probably the very first image of any kind that I can recall from birth...and they wonder why I am a train nut!

 

Jim

My favorite bridge is the Nicholson Viaduct in Nicholson Pa. Years ago, the my wife and three boys rode the Steamtown excursion over the Nicholson Viaduct. The train stopped in the middle so the folks could view the town of Nicholson below. The bridge eliminated an 8oo foot climb, and was built for the Lackawanna RR under the supervision of John Roebling, son of Washington Roebling, who designed the Brooklyn Bridge. John supervised the completion of the Brooklyn Bridge, after his father died.

I'm including some pics of a few bridges I made for my suspended layout adjacent to my workshop. My son Mark helped with the wood truss bridges, and he and I did a segment of the Rockville Bridge across the Susquehanna River in Harrisburg Pa. I believe that is the bridge in one of Nicole's photos. Mark did the bridge as a project for a seventh grade History class. 

There are a lot of nice photos so far.

A lot of nice bridges here!  Your son Mark did a good job.

Yes Peter it does cross the Patapco River in Relay, Md.  It's called the Thomas Viaduct.  Lots of Civil War history attached to it.

Another neat one the the old New Haven bridge over the Hudson in Poughkeepsie NY. It burned in the 70s and recently was turned into a pedestrian walk way.

 

Peter

As far as my favorite on the layout, it would have to be this one:

 

Alan

Got to be the Firth of forth railway bridge in Scotland. It absolutely dwarfs the trains that cross it. Built in the mid to late 1800's and still going. The locals were complaining the highway bridge just upstream was built in the 1960's and was in bad need of replacement.

 

Saw this on the White Pass and Yukon near Skagway, Alaska, two weeks ago.

 

Here's the one in Poughkeepsie.....

 

 

 

Here's the new website.....I hope to get there someday.....

 

http://nysparks.com/parks/178/details.aspx

 

Peter

 

 

I love the Hellgate Bridge but currently have no room for it on my layout.  I may revise a place on the layout in the future so I can fit one in.

I originally said the HellGate Bridge.  I stand by that one, but I also really like this one.

 

 

I have seen photos of this bridge before, but yours get some new angles.  Very good!  Great experience to go there.

Yes, this angle shows how impressive it is.  Does anyone know the name of the movie, it may star Cary Grant, but I'm not sure; where a man is falsely accused in England, and is a fugitive who travels to Edinburg?  There is a night scene with the bridge in the background.

I love the Hellgate so much I bought a beautiful handmade model of it at York 2 years ago for $325. It is too large for my layout, so I have it on display with 2 AF pw trains on it. I travel over the real bridge about 6 times each year.

As far as model bridges go, my favorite was an N scale Campbell curved trestle I built over 25 years ago.  I have some snapshots of the bridge and the layout, and the HO layout I used to have.  I need to scan them and so I can post someday.  I have some of those buildings I plan to use in the background for forced perspective on my O gauge layout I hope to start in a year or two.

My favorite bridge is the P&LE bridge over the ohio river. Its near the town I grew up in where I used to sit and watch P&LE trains roll through it all the time. CSX trains roll over it now.

 

Oh yes, the P&LE bridge over the Ohio River at Monaca and Beaver, Pennsylvania; that's a good one too, and not far from me.

This one is a narrow gauge bridge in New Zealand.  We were told it is the largest CAST IRON structure in the southern hemisphere.

I'll second that, rail.  The Nicholson Bridge is a truly amazing sight.  The first time I ever saw it was on a drive from Pennsylvania to Vermont.  It's hidden from view until suddenly you round a curve, and all at once there's an enormous white bridge filling the sky overhead.  And if you wait till a train crosses it, you'll find that the train looks like an N scale model on a G scale bridge!  A beautiful piece of work.

 

I had my roeblings mixed up in my post last night; John was the designer of the Brooklyn Bridge, and Washington was his son. I looked a bit to find a reference to Washington being involved with the Nicholson Bridge, but I didn't find anything. I saw it on the History Channel, or possibly while riding the Steamtown excursion over the bridge, but I remember a mention of him. I apologize for the mix up; a little too much wine!
Don

John Roebling came to America and founded the town of Saxonburg, Pennsylvania just a stone's throw from where I live.  There is a museum depicting the beginnings of the settlement and his invention of wire rope.  The John Roebling house in Saxonburg is on the National Register of Historic Places.  He died from injury when they were placing the footers for the Brooklyn side of the Brooklyn Bridge.  Then his oldest son, Washington continued his father's project.  He built many long suspension bridges, some of which are still standing, but the Brooklyn Bridge is by far the most famous.  I agree it is worthy of being a favorite bridge.